Racial slur pops up during Pakistan’s warm-up game against PMXI, leaves Cricket Australia red-faced

Pakistan’s ongoing warm-up game against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra stirred up controversy on Wednesday, December 6 after a racial slur popped up during the live broadcast. The incident happened after Pakistan’s skipper Shan Masood elected to bat first after winning the toss and the two Pakistani openers Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq made their way into the middle.

The broadcast live score ticker at the bottom of the TV screen displayed an ‘I’ after Pakistan’s usual acronym (PAK) – a racial slur used to demean Pakistanis and people from the Asian continent. Danny Saeed, a cricket journalist working for Crikey (an Australian news outlet) highlighted the gaffe by taking to the social media platform ‘X’. 

Taking cognizance of the matter, Cricket Australia (CA) immediately issued a statement after rectifying the “error”. “The graphic was an automatic feed from a data provider which had not been used previously for a Pakistan game. This was obviously regrettable, and the error we corrected manually as soon as it came to light,” read CA’s statement on the matter.

Meanwhile, barring Masood, none of the other Pakistan batters managed to make the most out of the batting deck on offer at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. Masood looked in absolute control throughout his unbeaten double hundred while the rest of the batting line-up crumbled. 

Former captain Babar Azam (40), Sarfaraz Ahmed (41) and Shafique (38) were the only other batters who showed signs of determination against the PMXI attack.

Right-arm pacer Jordan Buckingham impressed with his terrific bowling display that saw him bag a five-wicket haul (5/80) in 23 overs. He picked up the prized scalps of Imam, Babar and Sarfaraz and finished his spell claiming the poles of Aamer Jamal and Mir Hamza.

Notably, Pakistan will play the first Test of the three-match series in Perth starting December 14.

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